How To Make Naturally Sweetened Cranberry Sauce In The Instant Pot

Hi, Wardee! I love cranberry sauce and I love using my Instant Pot. So I'm wondering if you've come up with a naturally-sweetened cranberry sauce recipe for the Instant Pot? Thanks so much!

My Answer

Ready?

This is going to be super easy, and I'm thrilled to show this delicious and healthy and fast recipe for naturally sweetened cranberry sauce in the Instant Pot.

I love this recipe for a few reasons:

It's all whole foods.

It's sweetened with apples and honey. Honey is sooo much better than white sugar and is a GAPS-allowed sweetener, making this an ok food to eat if you're on GAPS (and are able to eat all the ingredients). You can use maple syrup instead. Or you can omit the honey or maple syrup entirely and sweeten afterward with stevia, to taste.

Including prep time, coming to pressure, and pressure cooking, this recipe takes no more than 15 minutes.

It's super yummy. (I have been making it for a few weeks already and my family is enjoying it as a seasonal food — on toast or yogurt or in smoothies.)

And now, here's the recipe… (See above for the video demonstration.)

Naturally-Sweetened Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce

Instant Pot Cranberry Sauce {GAPS, Naturally Sweetened}

I used to HATE cranberry sauce. Until I made some at home. In my own kitchen. With my own whole food ingredients. Without white sugar or high fructose corn syrup. Huge difference! The Instant Pot makes cranberry sauce delicious, easy, and FAST!

Instructions

Put on lid of Instant Pot, ensuring that all is clean and the seal is in good working order. Rotate venting knob to sealing position.

Hit the "Manual" button.

Change setting to HIGH if it's not already on high.

Adjust minutes to 1. It will turn on, come to pressure, and then go through the 1 minute cook time.

When it beeps that it's done, leave it be for 7 minutes to release pressure naturally. (Watch the clock on the outside to see when 7 minutes has elapsed.)

Hit the "Cancel" button. Turn the venting know to the venting position to release the rest of the pressure.

Mash the fruit a bit with a wooden spoon.

Hit the "Saute" button.

Let simmer a minute or two, while stirring, so that some of the water can evaporate and the mixture can thicken.

Hit the "Cancel" button.

If you omitted honey/maple syrup and wish to use stevia to sweeten, add stevia now to taste. Stir.

Transfer cranberry sauce to a pint size jar and refrigerate. Enjoy!

That Awesome Jar?

Did you notice the awesome glass spice jar I used in the video to get a teaspoon of cinnamon? That's a light-proof, air-tight, glass storage jar from Infinity Jars. I love these jars!

In fact, if you watch the video, you'll see me show off my spice cupboard behind me and the island. I have allll my spices in these jars. The herbs and spices stay fresh for months. Plus, they're pretty, aren't they???

The size I use, love, and recommend is the 250mL. (I also love the 150mL tall, which compares to many conventional spice jars. Though it's smaller, which is why I use the 250mL)

And, might I suggest… if you want to convert your entire spice cupboard over, like I did, they have great 10-packs of jars. To redo my setup, I got (3) 10-packs of the 250mL size. (And yes, I paid for them myself; that's how much I love these jars.)

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With traditional cranberry sauce, you bring all of your ingredients to a boil and then you simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely in the refrigerator. I’m not sure how the apples will affect that.

Just made it! So easy and delicious. I’m going to try it next with orange juice, instead of the lemon. And wanted to note, that I have a ‘sweet’ ring for my Instant pot that I use with anything desert like. Otherwise the flavors can transfer. Thanks for the great recipe!

Gumbo — By “sweet ring” Sheri means that she purchased an extra silicone ring to use only for sweet dishes. This way, the other ring that’s cooking savory foods, and possibly absorbing their odors, doesn’t give the sweet dish with a meat/bean/etc odor. (I do the same thing!)

I was making 17 dishes at once and forgot to put the apples in when I made this! So I chopped up my apples, added them to the cooked cranberries (before sautéing) and cooked another minute in the Instant Pot. Vented out the pressure immediately after the 1 minute and it was perfect – no need to cook out juices. I did not peel my apples and they were a tad chunky but I like it that way. So good! I think I’ll try it with orange juice next time. Thanks for this delicious recipe. I had about given up on homemade cranberry sauce.

I don’t usually return to a website to comment on a recipe but I had to this time. I have never made cranberry sauce. My kids always liked “the real kind that comes out of a can”. I just made your cranberry sauce and it was so easy and so good. I only had 1/4 cup of honey so that’s what I used and added two Stevia packets at the end. I’m going right now to share some with my aunt and her neighbor. Hope they like it as much as I do. Will definitely make again.

I made a double batch and definitely discovered that doesn’t work too well in a 6 qt pressure cooker! Cranberry sauce came out when I vented it and I had to wait longer to release pressure. I really love the recipe but I have one question. Some of the berries seem to have a tough outer skin that didn’t break down in the sauce. There are also some small seeds(?) as well. Is this normal in a homemade sauce or should I have cooked it longer? Or was there some part of the prep that I missed? Thanks again for a great recipe!

We’re not sure. 🙁 I checked with Wardee on this and she has doubled it and didn’t have that issue. Perhaps you could slow down the release or let it release naturally for awhile. Whenever food is coming out of the vent, that’s a sign to slow it down or give it more time. If the skins needed to be more cooked, add more cooking time. It’s possible some varieties of cranberries have a thicker skin than others.

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